


Maybe In The Meantime

by Mr_Dadamy_Blake



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-03-21 11:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Dadamy_Blake/pseuds/Mr_Dadamy_Blake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I have a title, a tree metaphor, and something about California weather"<br/>“Yeah, and then you hit puberty.”<br/>“Oh but Jay,” Tim practically sings. “You are my knight in shining armor.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A shit ton of drabbles I've been posting on tumblr. About time they appear here. You can find me as Thesarcasmcomesincluded.

Tim and Jason, Jason and Tim, Alvin and John, Caroline and Alphonso, _Red Hood and Red Robin,_ Dick tried to remember a time when any of those names didn’t immediately give him a headache. He wasn’t having much luck. Especially since those two together were just another synonym for disaster.

-_-‘

“You and your great ideas can stick a sock in it.” Jason said. He glared over at where Tim was glaring at him.

“Stop complaining and start shooting, Red Hood. I want to get out of this _alive.”_ Tim said. He turned his glare to the robot tentacles trying to grab him. If it wasn’t for the fact that it wanted to kill them, Jason would have been all for letting the giant robot squid take hold of Tim. Jason decided that that train of thought was best for some other time, when he wasn’t almost dying again.

“Remind me to never listen to you again.”

“You love my plans Hood, admit it.”

-_-‘

“Stop your dramatic bitching and get up, baby bird.” Jason hummed, happily taking the covers off of Tim and pulling him by the ankle very slowly. Tim tried ignoring him and groaned, holding tightly to his pillows. Damn Jason, damn him to hell and back for being a morning person. Tim didn’t even try to avoid trying to prevent his eventual floor hitting. He lifted his face slightly and glared at Jason.

“Why must you insist on being so awake, Hyde?” Tim said, he was muffled by his pillows and Jason raised a perfect eyebrow at him. He hadn’t even gotten dressed or anything. Why did he look so perfect and awake?

“It tickles my dick.” Jason deadpans. Tim isn’t awake enough to come with an eloquent retort so he just grumbles incoherencies and tries to suffocate himself with his pillow. He knows Jason is watching the process of him giving up and standing from the cold-ass floor. So he resigns himself to glaring and wondering why he agreed to Jason moving in in the first place. Oh, right he _didn’t_. Jason invited himself and Tim just hasn’t found the right moment to tell him to get the fuck out.  “There’s coffee waiting for you in the kitchen, Frodo.”

“If I’m Frodo, you’re Sam.” Tim mumbles. Maybe Jason isn’t so bad, if he manages to make Tim coffee at ass crack in the morning. That’s how Jason cajoles his way into staying with Tim.

-_-‘

Tim was lying on the couch eating chips and watching reruns of the _Gilmore Girls_ when Jason walked into the apartment they shared. Tim’s camera lay forgotten on the corner of the new coffee table. They had to replace it after Jason went and slammed himself into it. It may or may not have been Tim’s fault. Jason could feel the judgment radiating from the couch.

“Why are you walking in through the door?” Tim had stopped asking why Jason was even walking in when he went into one if his guest rooms and found Jason’s shit all over it. The weird part of the scenario was Jason not coming in through the window. He tried to avoid it when he wasn’t in his costume. Tim knew that, so Jason didn’t answer.

“You’re going to die of a heart attack.” Jason said. “And Im going to laugh, and insist that your grave stone says ‘death by chips’.”

“Bruce wouldn’t let you.” Tim narrowed his eyes at him. Jason closed the door and hung his jacket. He shucked off his boots before giving Tim a grin.

“The fucks I gave about what Bruce wants died and stayed dead.” Jason retorted. Tim snorts and rolls his eyes. He throws an empty can of Zetsi at Jason’s head and Jason catches it.

“Alfred would insist.” Tim said return Jason’s earlier grin. Jason frowns and throws the can at the back of Tim’s head when he isn’t paying attention. He still catches it. “It’s your turn to cook.”

“It’s literally always my turn to cook, Cathy.” Jason says. “You can’t cook to save a life and won’t bother on learning.”

“Don’t be that way Heathcliff. I _tried_ but remember when the manor’s kitchen was on fire?” Tim returns.

“Yeah?”

“All me. Alfred banned me afterwards.” Jason snorted. It was just like him to sound fucking _proud_ about it.

-_-‘

Damian takes one look at Jason and Tim and regrets ever making a bet with Dick. He was a month away from five years of not making an attempt on their lives all for the sake of winning a bet and Damian simply refused to be susceptible to anything Dick could come up with. He admits that if not for the sake of one-uping his mentor he would have probably killed the two of them a while ago.

Currently they were fighting over a movie and being general nuisances in Damian’s life. When they weren’t trying to convince the other they were right they would give each other a look that made him want gag. He wanted to smash their faces together and either break their noses or force them to confess their undying love for each other. The former seemed to be the most likely.

“I haven’t seen the Star Wars one.” Damian says wrinkling his nose. At least it got them to shut up.

“Which one?” Jason asks. He looks like he’s afraid of the answer. If Damian kept wrinkling his nose like that it would end up somewhere on his forehead.

“There’s more than one?” Dick raised his eyebrows in amusement. Damian, by Dick’s insistence, had watched all three Star Wars movies plus the prequels when he was eleven. Tim and Jason didn’t need to know that. If they did they would have continued with their argument and everyone knew they would end up watching whatever fucked up movie Cass was in the mood for if they did that. Damian did not want a repeat of the foreign horror film they watched _last_ time it was Cass’s turn to pick the movie.

“You uncultured swine.” Tim says. Jason just groans and slides down until his ass is hanging off the seat. He throws _The Fellowship of the Rings_ onto the coffee table and glares. “Hyde, we can’t possibly let this unnatural phenomena continue.”

“Put the goddamn movie in Jekyll.” He mumbles about injustice and wanting to shoot everyone in the face multiple times. Stephanie offers Damian a secretive high five and he accepts merely because nobody was in the mood to watch a three hour movie or anything Cass could come up with.

-_-‘

The flash of Tim’s camera startles Bruce more than it should. He’d known Tim was behind him since half an hour ago, just standing there and looking over Bruce’s hunched shoulder’s as he does his work.

“And now we see the Brucicus Wayneicus signing off the last of his soul before preparing for the nightly ritual of courting justice, wearing the traditional bat ears to attract potential criminals into his path.” Tim murmurs with a horrible Australian accent. Bruce has seen him do better than that, it kind of disappoints him.

“What do you need Tim?” Bruce sighs.

“Jason and I are having a movie night. Can you get someone to cover us?” Bruce raises his eyebrows because surely his two sons haven’t become a thing without his noticing, unless Dick had something to do with it. He told him not to (“ _But Bruce, they’re almost as oblivious and emotionally constipated as you are. It could take them_ forever _if I don’t do something.” “No, Dick.”)._ “Jason is sick and doesn’t want to admit he is, so I have to be there and force him to stay.”

Bruce found it funny that Tim was willing to stay in for Jason’s wellbeing but when it came to himself he fell into a denial worse than anything any of his other children could muster _together_. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Tim apparently took that as a yes because he snapped another picture and skipped off to fight Jason about which movie they would watch. Jason became more stubborn and infinitely more irritable when he was denying sickness; it would have worried him for Tim’s safety if he didn’t know just what kind of crazy Tim was. He was more worried for Jason.

-_-‘

Stephanie fell onto Tim’s couch as if he wasn’t already lying there. Tim grunts at the sudden weight but does nothing to move her off of him.

“I have a title, a tree metaphor, and something about California weather that has nothing to do with what I am supposed to be writing. Tim, _I need help._ ” She groaned. Tim tilts his head at just the right angle to drink his Zesti.

“Steph, I don’t know what kind of help you’re expecting to get out of me. _I dropped out of high school._ ”

“You’re getting your GED and applying for GCU. You’re bound to start sometime. Why not now?” Steph asks. Tim groans. He places his soda down and wistfully looks at the _F.R.I.E.N.D.S_ reruns he’d been watching.

“Im not getting out of this am I?”

“No way Boy Dork.” Steph sings happily into the pillow Tim’s head had been on before she came along.  “If I have to suffer through writer’s block, so do you.”

-_-‘

Tim breathed in the toxic air of Gotham. The fumes of cars, trains, industries swarmed around him in the form of fog. Gotham was addicting. It was everything Tim didn’t need, yet everything he wanted. He wanted her safe, he wanted her alive, and he wanted her fighting. Gotham’s demise was inevitable, Tim knew this but he didn’t want to know. Gotham was Pompeii, there so much promise for so much good but its end would come in fire and smoke and everything destructive. Gotham was Pompeii and there was nothing Tim could do but watch it burn.

-_-‘

Jason sat there and stared at Tim as he brooded at the far edge of the building. It intersected both of their territories and was a good spot to rendezvous, mostly because Bat’s routes were situated very far away from this building. Tim was brooding and Jason still had to ask why. The lines deepened the shadows set on his face. All he needed was the pointy ears and a look of eternal regret and disappointment on his face for him to be a small version of Bruce.

-_-‘

Dick and Bruce sat together on their day off. Dick’s back resting against Bruce’s chest as he quietly sang that one Ed Sheeran song. They had just started talking again and it was a huge weight off of Dick’s chest. The time Bruce ignored him had weighed a ton and had him thinking this would be the last time they spoke. He leaned in further into Bruce’s chest and hid his face into the crook of Bruce’s neck and shoulder. Being like this with Bruce was one of those rare moments that Dick wished would never end.

The fire place behind Bruce’s desk was on; the music in the background was quiet, just like Dick’s singing. It was the perfect romantic scene. Dick closed his eyes. He hears Jason and Tim yelling at each other about something or the other.

“Do you think those two will ever get their heads out of their asses?” He asks when the song ends.Bruce burrows his nose in Dick’s hair and Dick smiles.

“We did.” Bruce offers. Dick laughs.

“You mean you did. I knew what I wanted the moment puberty hit.”

“I thought it was a passing crushing.” Bruce hums. He chuckles slightly. “Then you became good at hiding it.”

“Yeah, and then _you_ hit puberty.” Dick said with a smile. Bruce rolled his eyes.

-_-‘

Whatever Tim said he couldn’t remember. All he knows is that when he said it caused Jason to kiss him. Tim’s hands, shaking with anger and something else, go around copping a feel. Jason slams him into a wall and Tim is sure he’s going to have a contusion later. Jason takes advantage of this to grab Tim by the thighs and raise his leg to wrap around him. Tim with the help of the wall and Jason’s hands pushes himself higher until Jason’s head is tilted back in a way that can’t possibly be comfortable. Tim takes a vindictive pleasure out of the fact that Jason’s neck _has_ to be hurting at this angle.

Tim is quite happy that whatever he said seemed to get such a reaction form Jason. Sadly, he wouldn’t be able to use it again if needed. It was a say-something-fucked-and-get-a-kiss-free card with apparently only one use.

“You fucking idiot.” Jason growls when he pulls away. “You are literally a fuckwad. Don’t ever fucking do that again shithead.”

-_-‘

Tim walked down the street with his crutches. His sunglasses blocked the sun but not the whistles he was getting from the idiots following close behind. He wished Jason was with him, he could shut them up if they got too annoying. His annoyance was growing and he was close to actually beating the snot out of them with his crutches. Too bad he was Tim Wayne at the moment and couldn’t do much. He was really regretting the whole invalid spiel he’d done for the media.

They didn’t get too close but didn’t stop following him. He’d only wanted to get something from a convenience store and high tail it back to the theatre. A hand was placed on his shoulder and he was turned around just I time to see a fist fly from out of the shadows.

“Don’t fucking touch him.” Jason growled. Tim, amused, raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“Jealous?” He asked once Jason is done with the pigs that stayed behind. He huffed and glared at him, then at the unconscious bodies on the ground. Tim pokes one of them with a crutch. “You out did yourself Jaybird.”

“Fuck off pretender.” Tim rolled his eyes and sighs.

“You sure know how to woo a guy.”

“Come on, you cripple before the damn cameras get here and make me your knight in shining armor.” Jason growls pulling Tim along.

“Oh but Jay,” Tim practically sings. “You are my knight in shining armor.”

-_-'

Life and Death.

Jason and Tim.

You’d think it was the other way around: Tim and Jason, but it never was.

-_-‘

Tim is pouting. If he were to be asked he’d say he was glaring. He’d say he was being intimidating, angry, murderous even, he was _not_ pouting. But Tim totally was and Jason found it _adorable._ Tim couldn’t be taken seriously as of right now, with his pout. Jason smiled.

“It’s not funny Todd.” He growled as he continued to struggle with the mess of everything that he was tangled in. “I will _maim_  you to the brink of death if you laugh.”

“Tim,” Jason said. He almost coos. “Tim you’re pouting.”

Something is thrown his way just barely missing him. Jason simply smiles wider.

-_-‘

Tim walks into the coffee shop groaning.

“What’s with the zombie noises Timbo?” Steph asks from behind the counter. Tim glares at her.

“Coffee.” Tim says and spreads his everything on three barstools. Steph rolls her eyes.

“Have I ever told you, you turn into a cave man in the mornings?” She hums. It doesn’t take her five minutes to set the cup down because Tim is a regular and everyone who works at the café knows his order and his coffee schedule. He half sits, half continues to occupy three barstools as he take his first drink of morning glory.

“ _Ambrosia,_ Steph, _ambrosia.”_ Tim mutters closing his eyes.

“Finals week, huh?” Tim grimaces.

“Today’s the last day of hell week times two hundred.” He answers. Steph would know, they go to the same damn University.

“We should celebrate.” Steph hums.

“On the house?” Tim asks hopefully. He’s sitting up semi-straight now. The process that was Tim Drake before ten a.m.  was an amusing one to watch. Everyone in the morning shift knew it. Steph gives him a look and that’s when Jason, another regular, walks in.

“I was thinking more yesterday’s cold pizza and shots.” It is Tim’s turn to roll his eyes. Steph tries not to smile as Jason walks closer. He bore the same look of _zombie_ that Tim usually does when he walks in. Tim narrows his eyes.

“Steph you’re doing that thing with your face again.” He said. “I thought we agreed you look ugly when you wear that look.”

“Hi Jason!” Steph practically yells in Tim’s face, causing him to almost fall of his chair. Unlike Tim, Jason has a sense of humor before and after coffee. It just takes him a while to understand comedic cues. It’s a minute or two before Jason snorts at what had just happened. “One cuppa joe to go, mister I-wake-up-like-this.”

It was totally and completely unfair. Tim knew this. Steph knew this but she didn’t care. Jason, as Steph called him probably knew it too. He turns around and smiles and Tim.

“Todd, Jason Todd.” He said smiling at Tim.

“Hi,” Tim said slowly. He takes the piece of paper he’d been writing on and slip’s it over before standing, picking up his things and walking towards the door. “I’m you’re new quartermaster.”

-_-‘

“Jason.”

“Tim.”

“ _Jason no._ ”

“Tim _yes._ ”

“ _JASON STOP.”_

Tim was asleep in five minutes, his work forgotten and Jason encompassing him.

-_-‘

Tim is handed a daffodil with blood all over it. He blinks and takes it.

“Jesus Christ, Jason _did you sell your soul to give me a flower?”_ Jason rolls his eyes and doubles over.

“Fuck off babybird.” He hisses. “So I got into a scuffle.”

“Jason no.” Tim pinches his nose in that Bruce way everyone hates. “It’s not a _scuffle_ if you’re bleeding out all over my new carpet. You have to stop ruining my new carpets Jason.”

“Baby red, in case you’ve forgotten _I am dying right now.”_ Jason sits on the floor with his legs crossed. He glares at Tim and Tim rolls his eyes.

“If you were really dying, you’d be professing you’re undying love for me; which is a bad habit, if I might say. Stop professing your undying love when you’re about to die.”

-_-‘

“Hey Timmers.” Dick said. Tim, as usual, ignores him in favor of finishing his reports. “How about you and me get some pizza, right now.”

“Can’t.” Tim said. “Working.”

“Not anymore you’re not. You’ve been at it for twelve hours.” Dick hummed. He lifted Tim up and away from the computer. “It’s time for you to look human again.”

Tim groaned. “Dick no.”

“Dick yes,” Dick was laughing at him. Dick was a _dick_. “Jason has some words for you too.”

“Jason can go fuck himself.” Tim growled. He didn’t struggle against Dick, he knew that was counterproductive, since Dick had six more arms hidden somewhere. Dick and Tim go into the manor’s living room where Jason was grumbling about murdering everyone and Alfred was giving him a look, which was the only reason Jason stayed sitting instead of acting on his mumblings.

-_-‘

“Why do you two idiots always fight for the most ridiculous things?” Steph asks. She bends over the couch to stare at Tim’s red rimmed eyes and pouting everything. “Why can’t fight over things like, oh I don’t know, who gets to be the hero during the next apocalypse?”

“Idiots.” Cass says. She’s sitting across from Tim on the only love seat.

“Why do I always come to you two?” Tim says. He lets himself fall face first into the cushions.

“You love us.” Cass says.

“You never help.” Tim mumbles.

“Our liquor cabinet is always full?” Tim mewls in accent.

-_-‘ 

Jason had been walking along the side walked minding his own business when it happened. It was supposed to be his rest night. Nothing remotely exciting was supposed to be happening and yet the gun shot rang loudly. The uncharacteristic grunt that followed is what got him curious. Usually people screamed when being shot.

He runs around the corner to find Red Robin leaning against a wall. His head hung low and his hair hid his face from the unconscious goon lying across from him.

“Shit.” Jason hasn’t seen the kid since the last time he tried to kill him. He was only slightly taller and his hair was much longer. “You alright kid?”

“J-Jason?” the kid looks up and Jason would have preferred he hadn’t. The bags under the kid’s eyes were testament to how much sleep he was getting and that hollowness that hadn’t been there before on his cheek of how much he didn’t eat.

“The fuck you doing kid?” Jason holds him up when he tries to move away. He got shot up pretty bad. “You trying to get yourself killed?”

Tim winces. Jason does too. It might be too soon for those kinds of jokes, especially coming from Jason.

“What’re you doing?” Tim asks quietly.

“You’re a bleeding mess, pretender. I’m not just going to leave you to die.” Tim passes out and forces Jason to pick him up. He pushes Tim’s face into his shoulder and lowers his head as he hurries back to his apartment.

-_-‘

“Hey baby bat.” Jason says. Cass doesn’t like the nickname but allows it anyway. Fighting with Jason was like fighting a boulder. Not that she couldn’t take a boulder, it was just unnecessary and a waste of her time. She looks up at Jason from her place on the couch.

“Hi.” Jason looks around. Cass knows he’s looking for Tim and Steph.

“Where Tim and the blonde?”

“Gone.” Cass says. She continues to flick through the channels.

“That’s a good movie.” Jason says. He sits down next to her and she nerve strikes him. He puts feet off the coffee table and glares. “Unnecessary, baby bat.”

“You are unnecessary.”

“and yet here I am.”

-_-‘

Jesus Christ who let _Dick_ near a pair of glasses? Who thought that would be a good idea? Tim wanted names and he wanted them now because Dick pranced in with a new pair of glasses on his face. He had the indecency of looking like a _god_ with his suit and his glasses. Tim is sure that whatever noise he made upon seeing Dick was unholy and should not ever be allowed to escape him again.

“So,” Dick starts. “Do you like them? Do I look good?”

Tim smashes his own glass clad face into the couches cushions. His glasses go askew and the corner digs into his forehead as is customary of face smashing with glasses on. A noise similar to the first one escapes Tim and Dick _chuckles_.

“Is that a yes Timmers?” He says. “I’m taking that as a yes.”

Dick then proceeds to do his imitation of an octopus and joins Tim on the couch.

-_-‘

Dick and Tim simply sit next to each other. Curved together likes pieces of the same broken puzzle. There was supposed to be two other pieces in between them, those would have fit better. The puzzle owner lost those pieces, so Tim and Dick made do with each other. Close and almost right, but the image wasn’t complete.

No. The other pieces where lost in Bruce’s room, misplaced but not really. They thought they could pretend that everything was alright. Yet it wasn’t, because Jason and Bruce were in the master bedroom right now; together.

Dick and Tim sit next to each other, like two pieces that almost fit. Almost touching and when they did it was like a whiskey lullaby. Their hands numbed where they stroked, the comfort and warmth provided scorching and temporary. They lulled each other to sleep, almost feeling right.

-_-‘

Dick’s eyes drifted always to where Damian sat in the sidelines. They were fooling around in the pool but despite Dick’s best efforts Damian refused to join. Now he could see Damian staring at them sometimes blankly, sometimes with something else. Dick just needed to find the best way to coerce the boy into the pool with them.

-_-'

Bruce stood in front of the crowd with Tim on one side and Dick on the other. Bruce was announcing some big project he was doing or the other. Tim didn’t know and had zoned out half way through the whole thing.

“... And with the help of my two eldest, Wayne Enterprises…” That’s when it happens, right there in that lull in Bruce’s speech. There’s a bang and screaming and a face in the crowd that looked all too familiar. Tim doesn’t notice right away. He looks down when he does. Right there, close to where his scar from spleen removal is, was a hole gouged into his skin and blood poured. The crutches where holding him up long enough for Bruce to hold him up straight. “Tim.”

“Bruce what?”

-

When Tim comes back around he can’t feel the lower part of his body. The bullet had gone through his spine, he was lucky he survived. Tim’s smile is wry when he hears it confirmed.

“I’m sorry Tim, you were lucky, but we could save your legs.” Dr. Thompkins says. “You’re paralyzed from the waist down.”

-_-‘

Their scars were a map. They paved the way to stories and conversation between them. They were bumps in the road, slowing them down and sometimes hesitating to run their fingers over the bigger ones, the ones that ran deeper than their skin, the ones ingrained in their heads forever. Sometimes their scars reopened into fresh wound, sometimes with a knife or gun sometimes with a word. It hurt and later when it closed and healed it would have a new story a new meaning.

Their skin was a canvas. The scars littered over the expanse of it seemingly random but each one created and wove with others. They hated their scars but they loved each other’s.

-_-‘

Kon didn’t like the sight that welcomed him to Tim’s apartment. The floor was made up of zesti cans and cheese puff bags. Kon had to fly above it to be able to move to the next level, which was the couch. There laid a mass consisting of black hair, bruises, WE papers, case files, and maybe a few of those cheese puffs. Tim had fallen asleep after binge working himself into malnutrition and exhaustion. That only happened when something was troubling him a lot, and the only thing that troubled him _a lot_ recently was one _Jason Todd._

Anyway, the only reason Kon had come to check was because it had been three days since Tim had pestered anyone into doing what they were actually supposed to be doing and _they missed it._ Tim’s constant nagging was something they looked forward to everyday because he had this way with words… It mostly amused them.

-_-‘

When Tim studied to become a therapist he did not think he was signing up for whatever this was. He was kidnapped, not your traditional tie you up and leave you in the dark kidnapping mind you, but he was sitting in a kitchen with his kidnapper. He was sitting here, instead of in his office because this guy was _lonely._

“Let me get this straight.” Tim says. “You kidnapped me. You, the Red Hood, drug lord extraordinaire, killer of rapists and dealers who sell to little kids, protector of prostitutes, kidnapped _me_. Me, a guy in his mid-twenties, with a track record in delinquency, master hacker, and therapist on the side, _because you’re lonely and want someone to talk to._ ”

“Face it kid, anyone with a computer and half a brain can hack into the pentagon.” The Red Hood says. He puts his feet on the table and takes the hood off in favor of showing Tim his dominoed face. “But not everyone can hack into the big bad bats computer.”

“Is this how you choose all the people you kidnap?” Tim was honestly curious. This is something that he’s wanted to know more about. “Their ability to hack into the batman’s computer?”

“You should feel special and honored. You’re the only person I’ve ever kidnapped.”

“I deserve a metal.”

-_-‘

Dick was run over by either a really big dog or a really small car. The slobber on his face was indicative of the former being his best guess.

“Titus off, now.” A voice said. The dog jumped off and continued to look excited between Dick and his owner. An owner that was really nice looking and had the nicest smile.

“Uh,” Dick said. Dick knew he was staring, he really did but his eyes seemed to be ignoring his brain when it told them to stop.

“I’m sorry about dog, officer; I promise he’s not this brutish all of the time.” The man says. Dick vaguely recognizes him as Bruce Wayne and Dick knows what he’s about to do is not a good idea but since when have his ideas ever been good? If you were to ask Babs, she’d say never.

“I’m sure of that.” He takes the offered hand with a smile. He pets the excited dog.

“He ripped your shirt.” Dick looks down and sure enough there’s a gash in his uniform. He’d have to go by the office to get a new one. “How can I make it up to you?”

“How about Dinner?” Dick smiles. The man looks surprised but then a smile starts creeping up on his face.

“Sounds great. Seven?”

“It’s a date.”

-_-‘

If Dick hadn’t known that Jason and Tim where in the manor he would have thought world war three was happening in the living room. As it is, it’s really just Jason, Tim, and Damian butting heads like it’s going out of fashion. Usually he’d have a high tolerance of his three brothers in the same room, today was not usually. Today was hangover day, and no _he didn’t sleep at all last night, thank you Bruce._

So he was tired, hung over, and sore all over. Today was not the day for world war three. He enters the room with a glare worthy of pre-coffee Tim and hands them their asses accordingly. With Damian thrown into one corner and Jason and Tim thrown into the other, he places his hands on his hips and glares harder.

“Do not move.” He tells them. “Do not make a sound, do not look at each other, and _wait_ until I am in the west wing of Manor. All three of you better hope I can’t hear when I’m there because I have photos of the Halloween you two can’t remember and _Christmas, Damian, Christmas.”_

-_-‘

Steph came into the watchtower through a window and that didn’t really surprise Barbara. It did surprise Dick though, since he was very close to kissing her. Barbara had to admit that Stephanie had horrible timing.

“Oops.” Steph says and climbs back out.

-_-‘

Tim was walking around Gotham, bored and slightly dazed. Dazed because as soon as he turns a rather shady corner, then again what corner isn’t, he gets body slammed into the ground. Bored because it was his night off but not anymore, he had a two ton gorilla on top of him and the amazing task of figuring out how to push it off without hurting said gorilla. A lock of white hair brushed against the lower part of his face and Tim couldn’t help to groan with recognition.

“What the fuck Hyde?” Tim growls. He knows he won’t get an answer. A drunk Jason is an impossible Jason. Sober Jason is at least somewhat literate in his responses.

“Jekyyyyyyylllll. What ya doin?” Jason’s Gotham accent gets thicker when he’s drunk.

“Get off Leia.” Tim pushes him off. At least he wasn’t bored anymore, Jason was groping him, who would be bored? “Let’s get you home you twat nugget.”

-_-‘

Jason let himself fall.

“Jason, what are you doing?” Tim held him up to avoid falling to the ground.

“Gravity, have I told you it doesn’t like me?” Jason asks back. Tim can hear the smirk in Jason’s voice. Tim groans and adjusts himself to continue lifting the two ton gorilla he was holding up.

“I refuse to be the Lilo to your Nani, Jason. Get the heck off me.” Jason laughs and Tim’s footing slips. Sometime during their descent to the floor Jason turns around to face Tim.

“No you’re the Nani to my David.” Tim simply groans once more.

-_-‘

_(864): Also day 6: Dick is healed and ready to go back to work._

Tim was very sure that there were two ways he could interpret that. Soon after he gets another text.

 _Dick as in my dick, not Grayson, Grayson as far as I know is okay._ That’s when Tim let’s himself groan and slam his forehead on Steph’s counter. She pries the phone from his hand and starts laughing.

“Christ, boy wonder!” She shrieks. “You sure know how to pick them.”

“I am going to kill Jason.”

“What happened to his dick anyway?”

-_-‘

Tim had omitted that he played guitar in fear that Jason would want to start a band. Of course that was ruined when Dick had been feeling just the right kind of vindictive against Tim. It seems to be that Jason was in a similar mood.

“Dick told me you played guitar?” Jason mewled. “Do you make it weep Timmers?”

-_-‘

“Jason?” Tim coughed. He couldn’t see anything, why couldn’t he see anything?

“Tim? What’s wrong?” Tim stuck his arms out to find a wall or something. His hands hit something, a chest, he lets his hands travel and he finds the edge of a jacket.

“Jason? Why… I can’t see.” Tim starts panicking. “Jason why can’t I see?”

“Shit.” Tim gets picked up. He hears the familiar heartbeat on his face as he hides his face in Jason’s neck. “Everything’s going to be fine Tim, you’ll get you’re sight back. I promise.”

Tim had a feeling that he wouldn’t.


	2. A Promise of Pain and Very Inappropriate Situations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What has Tim done to deserve such a man in his life?"
> 
> " _He can’t deal with this._ "
> 
> "He waits for the joke... it doesn't come"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow look an update, I haven't written any drabbles as of late these are pretty old. I've been focusing more on academic writing and I doubt you guys want to hear about bullshit opinion on topics I don't care about. So enjoy! Tell me what you think and if you catch any mistakes don't be afraid to say!

-_-‘

Jason, for some reason, fights the urges to throw the radio out of his window when another love song comes on. He nurses the bottle in his hand and watches out of his window. The only light was from the old timey radio sitting on his coffee table, a small blinking red dot. Jason wishes he could turn it off but something is stopping him.

“ _Come on man.”_ Roy voice played again. “ _It’s been months, Tim ain’t coming back. He would have already, and change your damn voice machine.”_

-_-‘

What has Tim done to deserve such a man in his life? What has he done to deserve such a handsome guy, you know the one. The kind that gets drunk, loses everything except his boxers, and hangs upside down on a gargoyle singing every Disney lyric he can remember in his drunken haze. So who did Tim piss off? He wants to know, he wants to send them a very sincere apology. Tim has learned his lesson call off the punishment.

-_-‘

Timothy Jackson Drake was a respectable CEO. He was. Sometimes. When he wasn’t being hounded by his undead boyfriend, whose alias was _John Doe_. Currently Timothy Jackson Drake was very close to committing a crime of passion if said undead boyfriend didn’t _shut up._ He had was of keeping him dead and he wasn’t afraid of using them.

“Come on babe.” Tim sighed and shoved Jason’s face away from him.

“No.” He answers. “I need to get to the business lunch Jaybird. _Now._ ”

“But babe, babybird. Come on, ditch it.”

“We’re not in school Jason. This is literally a situation where we might not have funds for our late night escapades if _I don’t go._ ” Timothy Jackson Drake was a respectable CEO. He was sure of it. Timothy Jackson Drake was also debilitated by a certain John Doe’s pleading look of sadness.

-_-‘

Damian has to admit that Drake had a certain charm to him. That doesn’t mean Damian liked him, it just meant that he understood why so many people seemed to be interested in him. There was an air of obliviousness that followed Tim around and doubled when he looked up, over his glasses, with his eyes wide and too confused. A childish kind of innocence not usually found in business men. Damian had to admire that Tim knew this and used it to his advantage. What Tim couldn’t see was the amount of people that were attracted to him. _That_ annoyed Damian more than anything.

“I am so glad nobody flirts with me,” Tim says just after Damian manages to shake an overly enthusiastic fan. It makes Damian want to throw a fit, because as he says it Tim thwarts the cashier’s attempts without realizing it. The innocence might be faked, oh so faked, but the obliviousness was so real it hurt Damian physically.

Damian groans and walks away. _He can’t deal with this._

-_-‘

Dick, immensely uncomfortable with the amount of people staring at Tim and Bruce, fought the urge of going over there and wrap himself around Bruce. One of the women was getting way to close to Tim and would accidentally trigger the flight or fight instinct that came with encroaching the personal bubble Tim had for his personal bubble. It surprised Dick that he hasn’t made some kind of excuse to leave seeing that the woman had managed to link their arms together.

Walking closer he could see Bruce’s hand stopping Tim from fleeing, a clear sign that Bruce wanted to be in that position just as much as Tim. Dick is uncomfortable when he approaches in a strike of compassion to relieve Tim of his reluctant position. He reaches them at the same time as Jason, who usually never bothers to show up to public events, he’s dead he doesn’t have to.

“Excuse me ladies,” Jason says, his arms enveloping Tim in the way Dick has seen Jason do during their down time when everyone else seems to go unnoticed by the couple. “I’ll have to distract my boyfriend from your lovely attention for a moment.”

Tim’s muscles relax immediately. His eyebrows unknit and the small twist of his lips softens even more into something that is real. The blue in his eyes seems to brighten as he looks up at Jason. Something similar happens with Jason, the tension in his shoulders disappears the longer Tim is in his arms, the smirk decorating his face turns into the soft smile Dick only sees when they’re alone. The ladies swoon, too charmed by the image of the couple to mind the fact that Jason is taking the object of their affection with him. Dick steps in with a smile and resumes his old conversation with Bruce as the ladies shift their attention to them.

-_-‘

Cassandra hid behind the counter of her own home. Dick and Jason were here and drunk. She was not going to risk them finding her. The things she did for blackmail…

-_-‘

“You have very nice muscles you know?” Tim said. Jason stops on the ladder and blinks down at him. Tim would set something on fire monthly; when he wasn’t attempting a new recipe, he was repairing some kind of technology. During the quiet months the fire force pulled straws to figure out whose turn it was to make sure Timothy hadn’t found another way to kill himself. Jason wasn’t familiar with the short straw, he would always hear about the adorable twenty-something year old that would set his kitchen on fire.

“Uhm, thanks?” Adorable seemed like the wrong word to use for him. If asked to describe the man, Jason is sure the first word out of his mouth would be _hot_ closely followed by _damn._

-_-‘

Tim didn’t like the feeling of wind against his face in situations like this, where there is fire in the back ground and there are bodies all around him. The smell of the polluted waters tainted even more by the chemicals the Joker dumps into the bay periodically. He hated how the air hit his face and he knew this wasn’t the last of the thing the Joker had planned. The wind had a set path, incorruptible until it hits something solid and more stubborn, then it is forced to follow an alternative path.

The Joker’s mark was everywhere, old and new mixed together.

_“I need back up down by the Mayor’s office ASAP.”_ Tim mouthed the words along with Jason. “ _It’s starting to get ugly…”_

He waits for the joke, it’s different every time with Jason.  It doesn’t come.

-_-‘

Dawn was approaching, not that Jason could actually tell; the storm made it close to impossible to tell the difference between night time Gotham and day time Gotham. Both horrible in their own right. He turned a sharp left into an alley. While the darkness in the open streets seemed endless, the alley ways seemed to be drowned into eerie silence by the pooling darkness. It seemed that everything was lost but the scuffle of rats and maybe just the occasional scream.

The raids happened everywhere. The screams that filled the night were just as often caused by the police as is by criminals. Jason was one of the latter causes, if only for the time being. His knuckles rapped against the back door of a restaurant. He stepped back and heard the voice of his best friend.

“Password?”

“You’re a knuckle head, Harper.” Jason growled. He stared down the laughing green eyes peeking out of the metallic slot. The music was faint as it raced to get into the world and lighten up along with the drunken laughter Jason couldn’t hear yet.

“Not the password but I’ll let ya in this time Jaybird.”

-_-‘

Jason sat in the diner with a bruise around his eye and a bandage on his cheek. He listened to his music as he waited for the waitress and the person he was meeting up with. The waitress got there first. She gave him a disapproving look.

“You keep getting these, I’mma start thinkin’ ya got them from that young man that’s always late.” She reprimands. Jason smiles at her and pauses his music.

“He’s a business man, he’s never late.” The waitress laughs. “I’m just always early.”

“What am I getting’ for ya darlin’?” She says instead.

“Two of the special, a chocolate milkshake and a coke.” She ambles into the kitchen after repeating his order. He feels a shift in the temperature as the door opens and in comes Tim with a wet flowers looking like a cat. “Meow.”

“Shut up.” Tim mumbles. “I’m sorry.”

Tim gives him the flowers. Jason smirks. Tim smiles back. They don’t say anything until the food gets there. The waitress smiles at Jason but eyes Tim suspiciously.

“I have a feeling she doesn’t like me.” Tim grimaces.

“She thinks you’re the one giving me these shiners.” Jason smirks, Tim grimaces some more. “You’re certainly not helping walking in here late with flowers.”

“You’d think it would help if we told her how we met?” Tim jokes. Jason flinches but smiles a bit after a couple minutes. Tim is sheepish and looks down at his food. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“No, it’s fair. I’d still be her favorite.”

“You gotta stop getting into fights Jason.” Tim reprimands just as the Waitress sneaks past. “Maybe if you stopped picking them she’d stop mugging all the time.”

“Only sometimes sweetie.”

-_-‘

The car they’d stolen was literally falling apart. Bits and pieces of scrap metal were left behind as they continued to be chased down Gotham’s corrupted streets. Tim broke away the bits of the window still loyally hanging onto their place. He pulls out the gun Jason had thrown into the back seat and replaced it with his own. Before he leans out the window he says,

“Nice, Jay.”

“I’m not gonna be payin’ attention t’ the cars make n’ model while dodgin’ bullets baby bird.” Jason growled. The tires go over something big.

“That was the defense,” Tim’s voice is high pitched with disbelief as he sits correctly in his seat. The only window left shatters as they make a tight turn. The force of the turn and Tim’s own attempt at trying not to get more glass in him has him greeting Jason’s crotch.

“Baby bird I ain’t tryin’ t’get a quickie right this moment.”

“Fuck off.” He grabs a clip off Jason’s belt and continues to shoot as they dump the car and get on their bikes. Tim croons, “my baby how I’ve missed you.”

Jason snorts.

“Let’s get our quick getaway a goin’ Romeo.”

“Whatever you say Juliet.”

-_-‘

“Fight me,” Tim blinks and looks at the patient confused. The man had come in with multiple shotgun wounds and somehow still mostly intact. It was a miracle really. He’d been under heavy sedatives for a week and was just starting to be eased off them. Tim smiled and raised his eyebrows while checking his vitals.

“Maybe later.”

Tim walked out of the room and tried not to laugh. Sometimes patients said weird things when under sedatives. It was the best thing ever. Steph and Dick liked to compare notes in the nurses lounge and really, they shouldn’t but it’s hilarious. This one is just plain cute though, with his dopey grin and teal eyes and his body? Damn.

“What’s got you smiling Timbo?” Steph asks. He takes the cup she offers him and sits down.

“Went to check on the shotgun whisperer and he asked me to fight him.”

-_-‘

Jason looked at the ridiculous amount of boot filled isles and then at the ones on his feet. They were brown, black, and gray with a little bit of green mixed into the fray from when Tim insisted on art therapy. The boots on his feet have taken him to many places for an obscene amount of time and Tim reckoned it was time for a change. Be it the hole at the bottom of the heel or the fact that the soles were close to ripping apart, Jason didn’t know. He quite liked those boots and it was a damned miracle he hadn’t replaced them by now.

The problem was, according to Tim, not that they only needed replacing now but that Jason was a tad _too_ attached to them. So there stood Jason in the only Boot World in Gotham, holding Tim’s hand as he talked on the phone with Tam. He obviously wanted Jason to take the initiative. Jason pulls Tim along gently and walks around the isles hoping to see a pair of boots that weren’t cowboy boots.

“Tam says hey and also that it was about time.” Jason’s eyebrows hike up as he takes a left into a different isle. Less cow wrangler and more punk rock options seemed to liter this one. Jason picks up a pair and turns to look at Tim.

“You got a cowboy fantasy going on here Tim? Is this why we’re here?”

“No Jason, we’re here because those things on your feet don’t deserve to be called boots anymore.” Tim takes the pair of boots from Jason and pointedly puts them back into their place. “Now take your time, come to terms with the fact that today I’m burning them.”

“At sundown Timmy?” Tim shrugged.

-_-‘

“You slob.” Jason’s face did that thing where the tip of his nose and eyebrows touched. A thing that amused Tim greatly. Extreme frowning. “How can I love you?”

“Sheer will?” Tim turns and continues to wipe his hand on his jacket with wide eyes. Nobody should trust that face. It was pure, unadulterated deception and oh did Jason love it.

“You’re the grossest Timothy.” Tim had used the back of his hand to wipe off snot from his allergy ridden face and now, instead of being concentrated to one location, was all over his body. Jason shoves the allergy medicine into Tim’s clean hand and steps away before Tim can think of something. The little shit. Tim opted to down the medicine with soda and that just made Jason frown more aggressively. “Gross, unhealthy, slob. How are you even still alive?”

Tim tries to fight him off when he approaches with a box of tissues in one hand and a wad of them in another. Jason probably deserved this. Tim snorts.

“Me, gross, unhealthy, and a slob?”

“Tim I am the sole reason this apartment is _clean and not infested with rats._ ”

“Jason I could die of cancer with just _looking_ at your lungs.” Jason and Tim narrow their eyes at each other. Jason won the moment Tim’s lips started struggling to keep pouting, the big baby.

-_-‘

“Tim?” Jason walked into their apartment. The TV was on but no other noise was happening. The vase filled with flowers Jason had gotten was on the floor, as well as many of his books. He remembered leaving the place clean when he left but knowing Tim he bumped into everything coming home from work. It didn’t really sit well with Jason this Tim. As much a slob Tim was he was always bitching about turning off everything when they left the apartment or just a room. The TV was on. Tim wasn’t in the living room but everything was strewn about and the TV hung precariously on the wall.

Crashing noises came from the bedroom but no Tim yelling out a cuss because he stubbed his toe. Jason tripped over more than half of their stuff as he made his way to their room.

“Tim?” more crashing happened and the closer Jason was the more grunting he heard. He reaches at his belt and grabs on tightly to the concealed knife. He kicks open the door. The light is off and there’s panting coming from the middle of the room and quiet groans and whimpers. The light of the sun setting barely reached their room from that angle but it was enough to see the familiar outline of Tim standing in the middle of the bodies. “Are. You okay?”

“Fine but they aren’t.”

“What happened?” Tim gracefully steps over bodies as Jason tries to do the same only to end up having to use Tim as support.

“Ninja ambush.”

“I figured as much, but why is the real question.”

“Ra’s apparently thinks I’ve been getting too comfortable.” Tim frowns. “Or at least that’s what Pru said, before she left. Laughing.”

“That soft spot you have for murderers is going to get you killed eventually.” Tim rolls his eyes.

“I’ll have you there to protect me my knight in shining armor.”

-_-'

“We are not stabbing anyone.” Dick had to put his foot down. Who would have thought that having Damian, Jason, and Tim on the same page would be so detrimental to everyone’s safety? Everyone, that’s who. Dick regretted ever giving them something to bond over.

-_-‘

Dick looked up at Bruce. He couldn’t help but smile as Bruce worked on the bat-computer.  He stepped back a little before launching himself onto batman’s lap. He grunts a little with Dick’s perfect landing but otherwise continues to type away.

“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep chum?” There’s a small smile on Bruce’s lips and Dick tries his best to look innocent. They had finished patrol an hour ago but Dick still wanted to jump around and do summersaults and talk to Bruce. Bruce who had taken him in, who had taught him so many cool things and understood him completely.

“How am I supposed to sleep when there’re so many criminals out there!” Bruce chuckles and ruffles Dick’s hair.

“The only criminal you’ll be fighting now is insomnia.”

“What’s in… somnia?” Bruce laughs again and Dick frown.  He tucked under Bruce’s arm and hauled to the stairs.

“It’s when you can’t sleep chum.”

“Oh.” Dick yawns and tries to look up at Bruce but the way he’s holding him makes it hard. So he wiggles until his cling onto Bruce like a monkey and adjusts himself to look Bruce in the eyes. Bruce’s arm moves with him, never missing a beat. “Insominia is when you can’t sleep, so when you can sleep is outsmoni, outsominia?”

“Of course old boy.” Dick rests his face on Bruce’s shoulders. He’s asleep before Bruce reaches his room. “Goodnight chum.”

-_-‘

“Mother, I cannot sleep.” Damian holds on tightly to the door frame as his mother turns around from the computers. She was speaking angrily.

“At least try to sleep _sighirati.”_ Her voice smoothens out, turning into a warm tone. She still looks angry but Damian knows it’s not because of him.

“I have, mother, but…” Damian doesn’t know how to explain it. How every little noise has him jumping. How he’s always afraid someone would attack him in the middle of the night. Sometimes it’s like he doesn’t even have to explain it. As if his mother could read his mind.

She’s harsh when she turns back to the computer, telling whoever it was on the other side to shut up for a moment. She slips her hand into a hidden pocket in her dress and produces a small device. Around it headphones are wrapped hastily as if she’d been using it just moments before.

“Here is a little trick I learned from your grandfather.  When your aunt and I would have trouble sleeping my father would play music.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she knelt in front of her son. Something reserved for very rare occasions. This was special. So Damian took the offered MP3 in his hand as if it would break. “Don’t listen too loud, you’ll hurt your ears.”

Damian nodded and started to back away. Once he was at the door his mother was back at scolding and hissing at someone on the other side of the world.

“Goodnight Mother.” He whispered before finally closing the door as gently as he could.


	3. Smile for the Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Damian wants is to study...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a little long, so I just gave it's own chapter... Enjoy!

Damian had sat in the corner of the coffee shop and set up his laptop and books. The mansion was full of his family and right now what he needed was them to leave him alone. He was sure that if he had stayed he would have been sidetracked from his studies immediately. His green jacket snagged as he sat down forcing him to hover while he fixed it.

A giggle came from behind him but he paid no mind to the person. It was obvious they were laughing at him. The first five minutes went well until the waitress accidentally spilled his coffee on him. He was going to be angry at her but when he looked up what he thought had been a waitress was a waiter looking ready to cry. From stress or something else Damian didn’t know but the redhead didn’t need someone yelling at him on top of that.

Damian tries to smile but he’s sure by the look on the boy’s face that it doesn’t look like that.

“I am so sorry. It was all my fault.”

“It’s nothing really.” The boy’s eyes widen as he gets a good look at the table.

“Oh no, oh no, I didn’t g-get any on your books did I? I, I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“It’s ok, I promise. I can get them easily replaced.” By now surely everyone in Gotham knew who he was. “What’s your name?”

“C-Colin.” Damian resorts to using the same techniques he would on a victim. Colin needed to calm down.

“Ok, Colin. You need to relax.” Colin nodded frantically definitely not relaxing. One too many entitled customers he’s had to deal with. Had Damian been younger… 

By now everyone knew what had happened and were whispering. None of that was helping Colin. He heard the whispers of his name going around and he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

“-tt-“ He lets out annoyed. Colin thinks it’s because of him and he starts apologizing even more. His messy red hair falls into his face as he looks down. “Colin, would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?”

Not the way to treat someone on the verge of a panic attack but it works. Colin look up, greens eye wide and staring at Damian with shock. He’s speechless and so is most of the coffee place… for a second and then the whispers gets louder. Colin catches his name and his face gets redder than his hair.

“I, I, uh.” Damian fights the smile that wants to surface. Damian finds himself hoping Colin isn’t straight. “I spill coffee on you and your stuff and you ask me out on a date?”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“You’re weird.” Colin is smiling now. Incident forgotten. “And yeah, yeah I think I’d like to.”

Well there goes Damian’s evening of studying.


End file.
